The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1887-06-10

I have no faith in the
cry: mo North, no South, NO East. no
West" Let all four sections keep their
peculiarities and their preferences. each
doing its own work and not interfering
with each other; each of the four carry.
ing its part in the great harmony-the
bass, the alto, the tenor, the soprano, In
the grand march Of the Union.
l congratulate you. the officers and sol.
diers Of this National encampment, that
if foreIgn attack should at any time be
male you would be ready, and there
would be millions iof the drilled men Of
North and South, like the men Of my first
text, which could keep rank, and like the
men of my second text, that would not
miss hair-breath.
..At this National drill when ::thirty-one
States Of the Union are represented, and
between the de corstions Of the graves Of
the Southern dead, which took place Q
few days ago, and the decorations Of the
graves of the Northern dead, which shall
take place tomorrow, would stir the
Christian patriotism and gratitude not
only of this soldiery here present, but Of
all the people, by putting before them
the difference between these times, when
the soldiers of all sections meet in peace,
and the times when they met in contest.
Contrast the feeling of sectional bitter
ness in 1882 with the feeling of sectional
unity in 1887. At the first date the South
had banished the National air. "The
Star Spangled Banner" and the North had
banished the popular air of away Down
South in Dixie" The Northern people
were 'mudsills' and the Southern people
I,
people killed in battle, the better the
North liked it. The more Northern peo-
killed in battle, the better the South liked
it. For four years the head of Abraham
Lincoln or jefferson Davis would have
been worth million dollars, if delivered
on either side the line. No need now,
standing in our pulpits and platforms,
Of saying that the North and South did
not hate each other. To estimate how
dearly they loved each other, count up
the bombshells that were hurled, and the
carbines that were loaded, and the cav
airy horses that were mounted; North
and South facing each other all around,
in the attempt to kill. The two sections
not only mars haled all their earthly hos
tilities, but tried to reach up and get hold
of the sword Of Heaven, and the prayer
of the Northern and Southern pulpits
gave more information to the Heavens
about the best mode Of settling this
trouble than was ever used. For four
years both sides tried to get hold Of the
Lords thunder bolts, but could not quite
reach them. At the breaking out Of the
war we had not for months heard of nv
dear uncle, Samuel J. Talmage, president
of the Oglethorpe University, in Georgia.
He was about the grandest man l ever
knew, and as good as good could be. The
first we heard of him was his ope ming
prayer in the Confederate Congress in
Richmond, which was reported in the
New York papers, which prayer, If an
swered. would, to say the least, have left
all his northern relatives in very uncom-
Portable circumstances. The ministry at
the North prayed one way and the minis
try at the South prayed the other way.
No use in hiding the fact that the North
and the South cursed each other with q
whitening and all-consuming curse. ..
'Beslde that antipathy Of war time I
place the complete accord of this time.
Not long ago meeting was held in New
York to raise money to build a home at
r chmond for crippled Confederate
soldiers, the meeting presided
over by a man who lost an arm and
a leg in fighting on the Northern side, and
the leg not lost so hurt that it does not
amount to much. The cotton exhibition
held not long ago in Atlanta was attended
by tens Of thousands Of Northern people,
and by General Sherman, who was greet
ed with kindness, as though they had
never seen him before. At the New
Orleans exhibition, held two years ago.
every Northern State was represented. A
thousand fold kndlie feeling after the
war than before the war. No more use
for gunpowder in this country, except for
rife practice or Fourth of July pyrotech-
MICS, or a shot at a roebucK IN the AdirOn-
dacks. Brigadler Generals IN the Southern
Confederacy making their fortunes as
lawyers in the Northern cities. Rivers of
Georgia, Alabama and North Carolina
turning mills of New England capitalists.
The old lions of war-Fort Sumter, and
Moultrie, and Lafayette, and Pickens,
and Hamilton, sound asleep on
their iron paws, and instead of
raising money to keep enemies out Of our
New York harbor, raising money for the
Bartholdi statue on Bedloe's Island, fig
ure of Liberty with uplifted torch to light
the way to all who want to come in. In-
stead of war antipathies, when you could
not cross the line between the contestants
without fighting your way with keen
steel, or getting through by passes care
fully scrutInized at every step by bayo-
nets, you need only railroad ticket from
New York to Charleston or New Orleans
to 60 clear through, and there is no use
for any weapon sharper or stronger than
. steel pen. Since the years of time be-
gan their roll has there ever been in
about two decades such an overwhelming
antithesis as between the war time
of complete bitterness and this time of
complete sympsthyi
Contrast also the domestic life of those
times with the domestic life of these
times. Many of you are either leaving
home or far away from it, communicating
by uncertain letter. What q morning
that was when you left homei Father and
mother crying, sisters crying you smiling
outside. but crying, inside. Everybody
nervous and excited. Boys of the blue
and gray! whether you started from the
banks of the Hudson, or the Savannah, or
the Androscoggin. don't You remember
the scenes at the front door, at the rail
car window, on the steamboat landings.
The huzza could not drown out the sup
pressed sadness. Don't you remember
those charges to write home often,
and take good care of yourself, be good
boys, and the goodbye kiss which they
thought, and you thought, might
be forever! Then the inconsistencies
as you paced the river bank on a star
light night on picket duty, and the sly
tears which you wiped OF when you heard
group at the campfire singing the
plantation song about the old folks
at home. The dinner Of hard-tack ON
Thanksgiving Day, the Christmas without
any presents, and the long nights in the
hospital so different from the sickness
when you were at home with mother and
sister at the bedside, and the clock in the